James, a comedian, is one of the posters behind the Instagram page Chaotic Hong Kong Expats. But the age of social media has catapulted the activity into public consciousness with a wave of begpacking-shaming Instagram accounts and Facebook pages. “Hong Kong is a very expensive place to live and the average (monthly) wage is 15,000 Hong Kong dollars ($1,915). Viral social media photos of begpackers in places like Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong have been appearing on social media in recent months, re-igniting debate over the issue. “I think it kind of represents the growing arena of location-independent tourists blurring boundaries between leisure and work,” says Bernstein.

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